a couple, you'd need winmpq to find the base moddel
You should have Yogbul's (or whatver his name is) file converter to go from mdls to mdxs so that you can impliment the effects and modify the effects in note pad
Also you should get Wp3 viewer or something like that to view your models
Notepad for simpel fixes
and wc3 image extractor
Adobe photoshop or PSP8 or higher to change colours of you're costum skins for certain spells (rarely used for the stuff you stated you wanted to do)
Ok so basically most of the work is done in notepad but you use the image extractor to veiw what skin of skins you want to change and use wp3 vierwer to see how the newer skins look.
Notepad is where you change the skins used, the colour, and to an extent, the particle emmitters as well (changeing length, amount sent out etc)
Basically all that is required is changing the file strings to the ones you want.
But first. Start by making an Abilities folder, then inside make a spells and weapons folder and inside of spells make a folder for each race and within that make one for your spell and inside that is where you put the model and required skins.
You do this this way so that you can easily impliment and correct your model without having to constantly open, impliment save and reload your map.
Now once you've found the base model using WinMPQ put it in the irght folder and rename it exactly to the folder name. Now open up the file convert and convert your mdx file into an mdl file.
Once this is done open up notepad and select the mdl file. You'll notice the spell name at the top in brackets is that of the origional spell; change it to yours and continue donw until you get the the skins used. It's not too far down and right after the anms (stuff you don't wanna touch in notepad because this is for really simple edits)
Now you can open up the image extracter to see the files and even open up the mdx model with the model veiwer to see how the skins are place.
Now unless you want to add NEW self made or changed skins, it's best to stick with the skins made in the editor as they do not need to be imported as they are already in the game and that saves space.
Now all you have to do is change the skins and then you should scroll down until you get to the coloring, in which case you'll have to chnace it t suit your spell (to do so easily find a spell with a simliar colour to what you can and copy the string for the colour in that spell and paste it over the color string in yours
Make sure to replace all the colour strings with the new ones otherwise you might not get the desired effects.
After that, simply reconvert the mdl back into an mdx (automatically replaces with old mdx andyou can simply import it into your map. To see it, put the proper path desiganted (ie: Abilites\Spells\[race]\[yourspellfoldername]\[yourspellname].mdx and thats it.
If you added new skins, import those too and right the approprite paths. (the paths also have to be the same in the mdl script too otherwise it won't work)
That should be all that's required.
Hope this helps.
